Artist Matthew Jensen Opens Outdoor Public Art Exhibition along Busy 57th Street Corridor

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

As part of his continued effort to turn billboards and construction sites into temporary virtual green space, New York City artist Matthew Jensen today unveiled the latest installation of his “Nowhere in Manhattan” project at the construction site of the new High School of Art and Design and P.S. 59 at 250 East 57^th Street.

“It's easy for New Yorkers to become exhausted by the fact that they live in one of the most identifiable cities in the world,” said Matthew Jensen, artist behind the Nowhere in Manhattan project. “The photographs on display give us a glimpse into Manhattan's few remaining ‘nowheres' and enable those who work and live in the City to experience landscapes they may not know exist here in their own chaotic urban environment – even if it's just for a brief moment while walking to the office.”

The photographs in the exhibition will be exhibited on the exterior construction walls surrounding the future site of the school. The specific images to be displayed were selected from the larger body of work by senior photography students. The new High School of Art and Design and P.S. 59 at 250 East 57^th Street are being developed through a partnership between The World-Wide Group, a real estate development company with more than 50 years of experience, and the Educational Construction Fund (ECF). The project will create a 1 million square-foot, mixed-use facility with two new schools, including the 1,400-student High School of Art and Design and the 730-student P.S. 59, 120,000 square feet of retail and an approximately 650-foot residential tower with 320 new rental and condominium units.

“We are very fortunate to have the opportunity to display this unique artwork at the future site of the new High School of Art and Design and P.S. 59,” said James Stanton, president of The World-Wide Group. “Matt's photographs will enliven the 57^th street corridor as we prepare for the opening next year of these two new public schools.”

The intent of the Nowhere in Manhattan project is to locate, explore, document, promote and protect the last parcels of nowhere remaining within the borough of Manhattan. For the scope of the project, "nowhere" is defined as a place where one's sense of location is lost. The images range from intensely lush forests to neglected non-places and draw from both the romantic and new-topographic ways of seeing. Jensen hopes to underscore how, in a place as densely built as Manhattan, even the smallest unmitigated parcels have something to offer, especially when nature has started to take over.

The foundation of the project is the experience of walking and exploring. Jensen set out to explore every park and green space in Manhattan with a particular focus on parcels of land that are too awkward or precarious to be parks yet are often riddled with footpaths. The photographs are byproducts of this process and become promotions for the idea of nowhere. The simplicity of each image is complicated by the knowledge of its location.

Nowhere in Manhattan is made possible in part with public funds from the Manhattan Community Arts Fund, supported by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and administered by Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. Additional support provided by New York State Senator Liz Krueger, New York State Senator Tom Duane and Citizens Committee for New York City. More information on Matthew Jensen's Nowhere in Manhattan project can be found on the website, http://www.nowhereinmanhattan.org/. For more information on the project at 250 East 57^th Street, please visit http://www.250e57.com/.

About Matthew Jensen

Matthew Jensen is a conceptual landscape artist based in New York City. He combines photography, collecting and rigorous explorations, in each of his works. His projects yield hundreds, sometimes thousands, of objects and images from a given location. Most of his site-specific works are collections derived from public landscapes and reveal how even in the most known place there exists a wealth of mystery and wonder. A recent solo-exhibition of Jensen's work, Searching for Something Previously Forgotten or Unknown on Governors Island, was held at the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council's exhibition space on Governors Island. Billboards featuring landscapes from Nowhere in Manhattan can also be found on Thompson Street and Sixth Avenue at Canal Street. Last year his series The 49 States was acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and a selection of the series will be featured in the fall 2011 issue of the magazine 1814. www.jensen-projects.com

About The World-Wide Group

The World-Wide Group and its affiliates are privately-held investment companies, based in New York City. They are headed by Victor Elmaleh and James Stanton and have been engaged in real estate development and venture capital investing for over half a century. With a reputation for successfully tackling complex urban development, the group has developed over $3 billion worth of new luxury properties in Manhattan. The company has converted underutilized commercial buildings into premium residential properties including 50 Murray Street, 53 Park Place, 88 Greenwich Street, 71 Broadway, The Steiner Building in Chelsea, 137 Reade Street in TriBeCa and developed ground up luxury towers at 55^th Street & Second Avenue and 74^th Street & Second Avenue. The project on 57^th Street will be it's third on Second Avenue in the past five years.

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